By Philbert Shih, theWHIR.com
April 18, 2005 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Web hosting providers are always looking to expand their product and service offerings in an effort to generate revenue and attract and retain customers. As the market has developed, control panels, Web site builders and various marketing services have become standard offerings while Internet access has crept into the picture as well.
Another service that hosts are beginning to look at offering is Voice over IP ? the transmission of voice services over the Internet using digital packets. But being able to offer VoIP services, and integrating them into an existing service delivery platform, is not a simple task as it involves a variety of technical, provisioning and managerial complexities for which hosts are often unequipped.
When San Francisco-based host Amernet (amer.net) recently rolled out VoIP services, it overcame some of these implementation barriers with the help of Rodopi Software’s (rodopi.com) OSS, an operations support system that automates billing, provisioning, payment processing, customer care and communications for Web hosting and Internet service providers. Amernet had been a Rodopi customer for almost three years, using the tool to manage its “traditional” Web hosting and access products. And when Amernet wanted to add VoIP to its service mix, Rodopi OSS was able to smoothly facilitate the roll out, as was the case before when Amernet introduced its online videoconferencing services.
“Initially they had purchased Rodopi for their traditional services and over time have been able to introduce new services, which is one of things we help our customers do as they evolve their business and add services into the mix,” says Todd Benjamin, president and CEO of Rodopi Software.
Rodopi’s software, says Benjamin, enables hosts to define virtually any service they want to provide, without being predisposed to any particular one. “It’s as simple as defining the elements that need to be managed for that service … creating that service and then placing it in one or more of your service bundles.” When a new service is defined, billing rules and parameters are configured in the system. Rules for how that service is managed are placed on the back end.
Benjamin says that because VoIP is a complex service, more features need to be provisioned. Rodopi OSS is designed to handle that, enabling the host to define features, determine which feature each customer is allowed and directing whatever equipment provides a particular service to either activate or terminate service. The software is also flexible enough to allow hosts to define their own workflows, provisioning and business logic.
One of the main benefits of using Rodopi is efficiency, says Benjamin. But the software really excels at helping hosts roll out additional services that generate revenue.
“We’re focused on helping [hosts] introduce new services and grow their revenue – actually being able to take your customer base, and offer more services to it,” says Benjamin. Retaining customers is part of the equation as well. “The more services that people are buying from you, the less likely they are to defect to another provider. If you can use them same infrastructure, and sell another service to the same customers, a lot of that flows to the bottom line and it becomes a more profitable business.”
Rodopi’s software also comes with integration packages that enable hosts to plug in and sell services from other vendors such as a wholesale hosting provider like Hostopia (hostopia.com).”A customer with Rodopi could actually plug Hostopia services … into their product bundle without ever having their own servers providing that capability,” says Benjamin.
The implementation time for integrating additional services is short, says Benjamin, with hosts able to plug in and start signing up customers the same day. Amernet plans to continue taking advantage of Rodopi OSS, as it will soon be offering pay-per-view video services.
Benjamin says that while many of the industry’s bigger players have been slow to get into VoIP, Rodopi can help medium-sized pure-play hosts and regional telco service providers get into the space. Amernet’s success with offering a wide range of services is a fitting example.
“From our perspective, its an interesting example of how somebody can integrate multiple products together and offer them to a customer in a self-activation, self-administration paradigm through their customer portal,” says Benjamin. “It’s a good showcase … of the breadth of some of our capabilities, especially in the Web hosting context.”
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